- INTELLIGENT RESISTANCE -
Free. Fair. Fearless. Intelligentsiya is made up of Fiji Islanders who are libertarians in their own way and who cherish the free flow of news, ideas and information and will peacefully resist any attempts by the country's military rulers to stifle free speech. intelligentsiya will also bear witness, report and discuss human rights abuses by the authorities.

April 17, 2007

There is no evil, just stupidity?

Dr John Cameron,Special to Intelligentsiya

It is a long way back to base in Perth, Western Australia from Suva: first, 3242 km to Sydney and another 3283 km clear across Australia. I have done it a dozen times in the last year or so, and it is a very long ride.

On my last trip I killed time reading Perfect Hostage, A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Justin Wintle.

For those who are not familiar with her story, Suu Kyi (pronounced Sue Chee) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but was unable to be present in Oslo/Stockholm to accept it in person. Since 1988 she has steadily opposed Burma’s brutal military regime, instituted by General Ne Win in 1962.

She left her comfortable life as the wife of an Oxford academic, and mother of two sons, to lead the political opposition to that regime. First placed under house arrest in 1989, she is again under house arrest, which this time appears to be permanent. Since her return to Burma (renamed Myanmar by the junta) from the United Kingdom, she has faced constant physical and psychological harassment.

In 2003, during an attempt on her life, she witnessed the massacre of scores of her followers. Neither the separation from her husband, who died of cancer in 1999, nor the separation from her two sons, presently forbidden from visiting her, has deflected her from the principled path to democracy which she has chosen as her own.

I was struck by a quotation from Suu Kyi, whom I have long admired, at the opening of the first chapter. She is quoted as saying:

I do not think there is a word for evil in Buddhism. I think this is something you must ask real Buddhist scholars. But we speak of ill will, we speak of ignorance, we speak of greed, but we don’t speak of evil as such. There is no evil, just stupidity.

Perhaps the Buddhist approach provides a better explanation of Fiji’s afflictions than others such as Christian doctrine: stupidity, rather than evil as the product of sin.

Further into his account, her biographer writes:

She might so easily have said: ‘I’ve given it my best shot, there’s nothing more I can do in Burma. I’m going home to Oxford, to look after my children and my husband and pursue my academic interests.’ Guilt would have pursued her for a while perhaps, but not for ever. The world is full of people who have stepped away, and the human psyche is adept at rationalising its activities.

He continues:

But Aung San Suu Kyi is made of sterner stuff.

For myself the most dispiriting feature emerging from the events since December 5 is not the manifest stupidity and incompetence of those responsible for them, repeated daily, but rather the ease with which those who might have been expected to oppose them have stepped aside, and the superficial ingenuity with which they have justified the sacrifice of principle to self-interest.

The most egregious examples come from my own profession, and I include the judiciary. The mainstream print media, with their self-serving self-censorship, come a close second.Suu Kyi’s biographer concludes:

What needs to be acknowledged, and continuously applauded, is Aung San Suu Kyi’s phenomenal ability to inspire others, not just in Burma, where her presence has underpinned the democracy movement since August 1988, but around the world. Without her kind, we are all impoverished.

In the Manichaean scheme of things, which sees the human condition as a permanent contest between good and bad, virtue and decay, and which every culture in one way or another subscribes, her significance reaches far beyond one beleaguered South-East Asian nation. Never let go of hope.

But the question is asked on the cover of this biography: Is Suu Kyi’s insistence on non-violence really best calculated to bring down a junta incapable of acting in good faith? That is a question no more readily answered in relation to Burma than it is in Fiji.

Perhaps the difference between the two situations lies in the fact that in Fiji we still have the remnants of an independent judiciary.

We do not have the guns, but we do have the law.

If only we had more lawyers and victims with the courage to use it.

Dr John Cameron is a lawyer who has practised in Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.His clients have included the late Dr Timoci Bavadra and the wives of parliamentarians detained in 1987.

27 comments:

Anonymous
said...

non-violence can only take you so far and really only works on the those who are willing to accept that they have made a mistake and can accept change neither of which are hallmarks of both the burmese and fiji dictatorships. maybe its time to pick up stones.

must get this book. Dr Cameron is true in that those who could have done something have gone quietly into the night, leaving it to us the ordinary citizen to fight the fight for our rights, our freedom.

It may even have to be as bloody as Aung San Suu Kyi's fight, it may not be ... but people like us inspired by these freedom fighters will continue our fight for the rest of the "silent majority".

Olei. When I read this, it almost brought tears to my eyes. It indeed gives me courage to continue to voice out my concerns against this military insanity in a peaceful and meaningful manner. Something I sadly note that the military has failed to do....finding their grace and manner in the midst of the trouble they have landed Fiji in.

Well, if you people want a lesson in non-violence why don't you ask Shaista Shamemm....I mean, she has just returned from a trip to India on a Gandhinian Conference....and she came back and spread the word in Marama Magazine about it....how her poet father used poetry as his way rather than violence opposition.

Hey John Cameron, you are a foreigner eh, stay out of Fiji's business. We know how to solve our problem. We do not interfere in NZ's business. Look wat you guys have done to the Maoris. We do not need foreigners advice.

Its me again anon 1 and I still say there comes a time when you have to realise that all the talking and blogging in the world is not going to change anything. I believe Suu Kyi is still under house arrest and its now 2007 and if no one lifts a hand for her she will continue to remain under house arrest probably until she dies. Dictators like Hitler, Saddam, Idi Amin would still be in power if all they faced was passive resistance, and so will Bainimarama and Mugabe unless people actually get up and do something about it. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on methods here.

I agree with anonymous 1. With all that is happening in Fiji, I came to realise that Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mandela were lucky. They were fighting regimes which were prejudiced but had firm ground rules on what freedom is about and they had clear standards on what is right and what is wrong. But when the regimes can call wrong, right and right, wrong then passive resistance will not make a dent in their conscience.

Whether the comments are from military intelligence or anyone else, we should not ignore any comments. That would be undemocratic, to say the least. Every comment should be valued with equity, and should be a point for further discussion.

What about US bombing of Hiroshima, Japan and see how Japan has turned out...? What both the nuclear tests conducted in the northern pacific, threats of a much bigger force that finally ended the Cold War...?

There are several other examples to show that yes, when there's no other way; when dialogue, passive resistance and diplomacy have all been exhausted, one needs to use force to meet force!!

To Anon (19/04 11:57) - Yes, but we are certainly still a LONG, LONG way from having exhausted passive resistance. And there is also simply NO WAY we could ever defeat the military by direct violent confrontation. They may be dumb in law, PR, politics and economics, but most of them are career soldiers in their chosen field and they would have little difficulty in putting down a direct violent uprising. Far better them to meet them on the battlefield of ideas where they are at a clear disadvantage. Then when the discontent has reasched fever pitch, it would be possible to "shut the country down" like the Nepalese did to King Gyanendra when they'd had enough of him. The trick is we need to be "fed up" enough to be willing to take the "delainabua jog" consequences of such a stand. We also need to be a lot more mature and patient than we have ever been in the past. The 2000 opposition to the Peoples' Coalition was supposed to stay peaceful, political and within the law. But it all unravelled into damn-fool violence quick smart the minute a few clowns got hold of some guns!